(1) Yang Chong, Third Son of the Yang Family

The moment she stepped out of the private room, Guo Huilian found Yueying standing off to one side, bowing to greet her. It was mortifying—Yueying must have overheard every word of her conversation with Tian Xu just now, and her face flushed hotter still. She hurried down the stairs, hands pressed to her burning cheeks. But the Zhenbao Pavilion was thick with people, a gathering of noble families from every household, business booming as never before. Guo Huilian, who had only wanted to flee somewhere quiet, found herself instead swallowed up in the bustling crowd, which was mortifying in its own right. She could only pretend to browse the tea leaves, the porcelain, and other such wares, to mask her own racing heart. She never expected a man's voice to call out and stop her; she turned, and found a face at once familiar and strangely unfamiliar standing before her.

"Fourth Sister? Are you Fourth Sister Guo?"

"You are..." Guo Huilian furrowed her brow, thinking hard for a long moment, before she finally recognized the man as Yang Chong. Three years was neither especially long nor especially short a time, and Yang Chong, too, was now sixteen—his voice had deepened, and he'd grown considerably taller, so much so that it had taken her a good long while to place him.

"Third Son Yang?" Recognizing him at last, Guo Huilian bowed to him properly and respectfully.

"I knew Fourth Sister had returned to Chang'an, but I never formally called upon the Cao household to pay my respects—a serious lapse in courtesy, and I apologize for it here and now." With that, Yang Chong returned her bow, just as properly.

"It's good to know you're still alive... As they say, one who survives a great calamity is bound to enjoy good fortune afterward—surely Fourth Sister is destined for peace, prosperity, and a long, blessed life ahead."

"My thanks for your kind words, Third Son." Guo Huilian offered a faint smile, responding to Yang Chong out of mere politeness. But truth be told, she no longer felt the easy familiarity with Yang Chong that she had as a child—standing face to face with him now, she felt an indescribable unease. The bond of childhood friendship had shattered utterly, brittle as glass, in the fires and plunder of the rebel troops, and could never again be pieced back into its original shape.

"Ever since I returned to Chang'an from my uncle's household, I've been searching for news of you, Fourth Sister, but found nothing at all. It wasn't until someone discovered the newly restored Guo family burial grounds on the outskirts of the eastern city, registered under your name, that I finally confirmed you were safe. I specially went again to seek out Physician Zhou, but he refused to tell me your whereabouts, saying only that you were doing well and that there was no need to worry, and refusing to say anything further after that..."

Indeed—it wasn't only Uncle Da who had refused to say more; she herself had no wish to waste her breath on the matter either. Three years ago, the ones who had been so heartless, so willing to let her die without lifting a finger, hadn't been Yang Chong himself, but Lady Yang's attitude at the time had already made everything abundantly clear. As a son, how could he possibly go against his own mother's wishes? So she had no idea what more Yang Chong might want to say to her now—or indeed, what more there was left to say?

"Uncle Da speaks the truth. Fortunately, Yueyue Manor came to my rescue, and with Uncle Da tending to me around the clock for days on end without rest, I was finally pulled back from the very gates of death. Afterward, Yueyue Manor gave me a home to shelter in, treating me as one of their own family, and so I have been doing very well indeed—Third Son needn't trouble himself with worry over it any longer."

Guo Huilian's words were courteous enough on the surface, but anyone with sense could hear plainly enough that they meant "drawing a clear line between us." Yang Chong felt distinctly uneasy at this. The two of them had, after all, shared a verbal betrothal since childhood, and now, meeting again, to be treated as though they were mere strangers—it was more than his pride could bear.

"Has Fourth Sister forgotten that you and I are bound by a betrothal? It's only natural that I should worry for you—why do you push me away as though I were a thousand miles distant?"

Yang Chong's voice rose considerably, drawing the curious glances of the noble onlookers all around them. Guo Huilian suddenly found the whole thing absurd—he himself seemed utterly unaware of the situation, and yet insisted on airing it so brazenly in front of this whole crowd. Where did he find the nerve?

"Only yesterday, Fourth Sister was seen riding a single horse together with another man, looking altogether far too intimate, parading through the streets in plain view of everyone—hardly proper conduct at all. The whole of Chang'an's markets are abuzz with talk of it. Is Fourth Sister not afraid of being drowned beneath the weight of everyone's spit and scorn?"

"Has Third Son Yang perhaps misunderstood something?" Guo Huilian finally understood—Yang Chong might well have genuinely worried over whether she lived or died, but what concerned him far more, it seemed, was the depth of the bond between herself and Tian Xu.

"Back then, Lady Yang abandoned Huilian when I was sick, alone, and utterly wretched—if not for Tenth Brother and Yueyue Manor giving me a new lease on life, I would have died long ago. What betrothal could there possibly still be to speak of? And why doesn't Third Son go home and ask his own mother what she truly thinks? Huilian today is nothing more than an orphaned girl—I daresay she gave up on any such betrothal, and any wish to acknowledge it, long, long ago." Guo Huilian felt a flash of displeasure. Was Yang Chong truly picking this fight with her without even understanding his own mother's intentions?

If he genuinely didn't understand his mother's true feelings, then he was simply a fool; and if he understood them perfectly well and still chose to say such things regardless, then he was simply cruel...

"Mother... isn't... it isn't as Fourth Sister... as you say..." Yang Chong stammered, wanting to sound righteous and firm, but the words came out the opposite of what he intended. His mother had gently counseled him several times already, telling him that the Guo family could no longer offer him any real advantage, and that she wished to find him a better match elsewhere—but he had refused, and his mother, thoroughly exasperated with him, had scolded him for being foolish, for treating his own future so carelessly.

"Only yesterday, Lady Yang was seen entrusting Matchmaker Shen of the Eastern Market to arrange a match for Third Son, with her eye on a few young ladies from households of the third and fourth rank—only, it's common knowledge throughout the capital that Third Son Yang has been bound by a verbal betrothal to Fourth Sister Guo since childhood, and so every proposal has been politely turned away as a result."

A deep, resonant voice suddenly rang out from the staircase, cutting through the clamor of the crowd, reaching every ear present with perfect clarity. Everyone turned toward the sound, and saw a young man descending the stairs, dressed in a pale brown round-collared robe, his features bright and clear, his bearing elegant and refined—like a fine sprig of orchid and jade, fresh and radiant as spring willows swaying by the moon. He held himself upright, back straight, descending the stairs with unhurried, easy steps, each stride carrying an air of quiet splendor that left the entire crowd momentarily unable to look away. Aside from Yu Shurong, whose ethereal, immortal beauty stood unrivaled throughout all of Chang'an, was there truly another man in the city with such a bright, heroic bearing, such dignified and commanding presence? Even the most senior ministers standing at court might not carry themselves with such righteous, unshakable grace, such singular distinction. Sunlight filtered down through the lattice windows and fell across him, and the whole crowd's eyes lit up at once, murmuring amongst themselves in a buzz of curiosity—whose son was this young man?

This was the first time Tian Xu had ever formally revealed himself to public view within Chang'an. In the past he had always kept himself deliberately low-profile and hidden—when traveling through Chang'an, he mostly rode by carriage, and even on horseback, he passed swiftly through the streets like any ordinary traveler, doing everything he could to minimize the chance of being seen. When inspecting the manor's shops throughout Chang'an, he kept always to his own private rooms, relaying any needs through Yueying. On the day he'd rescued Guo Huilian, his horse had galloped past so swiftly that few could have gotten a clear look at his face at all—after all, hardly anyone in Chang'an even recognized him. It was only that a few sharp-eyed onlookers had recognized Guo Huilian, and that was how the whole business of "the markets of Chang'an abuzz with talk of it" had first begun to spread.

"What Lady Yang has done seems entirely at odds with the mother Third Son describes." Tian Xu came down the stairs and stood firm, his expression calm and composed, as he refuted Yang Chong's account.

"You... who are you? How dare you spout such nonsense here?" Rebuffed like this, Yang Chong's face flushed through shades of blue and purple in turn, but for the sake of his own dignity and that of the Yang family, he still worked up the nerve to bluster.

"This one is Tian Xu, Lord of Yueyue Manor." Tian Xu bowed respectfully, then continued, "Three years ago, during the mutiny of the Jingyuan army, of General Guo's entire household, only Fourth Sister survived. Lady Yang, fleeing Chang'an with her three sons to seek shelter with her brother in the Eastern Capital of Luoyang, happened to cross paths along the way with Fourth Sister Guo, terrified and running a dangerously high fever—and yet extended no helping hand whatsoever, telling her only to make her own way to Moxi Hall to find Physician Zhou, before continuing on without a backward glance. Fourth Sister, her strength utterly spent, ultimately collapsed unconscious right outside the gates of the Four Seas Inn. Had Yueyue Manor not intervened to save her, Fourth Sister would surely have perished then and there. And now here stands Third Son Yang, speaking with such righteous conviction, without so much as a flush of shame on his face—wherever does he find the nerve to twist right into wrong, to call a deer a horse so brazenly?"

Tian Xu spoke each word calmly, unhurriedly, and yet every syllable struck like a blade to the heart, his expression betraying not the slightest ripple of emotion throughout. Guo Huilian found herself staring at him, transfixed—amid the crowd, he shone so brilliantly, and this was the Tian Xu she knew so well. Having taken charge of the whole of Yueyue Manor's affairs since the age of thirteen, steady and composed, mature well beyond his years, every decision of his had to be made with precision, every response handled without the slightest error—a standard the young sons of Chang'an's official households could never hope to match. What surprised her even more was that Tian Xu apparently knew even of such a small matter as Lady Yang sending a matchmaker to arrange a match for Yang Chong. And judging by how things looked, what Tian Xu had said carried the ring of truth—otherwise, with so many wives of official households present in the room, such a claim could never have held up if it were false, to say nothing of the fact that fabricating lies to deceive others was entirely out of keeping with how Tian Xu conducted himself in every other respect.

At that moment, Yang Chong's face had turned truly unsightly. Though he himself had fiercely opposed it, he'd been powerless to stop his mother from secretly seeking out a matchmaker behind his back, and the two of them—mother and son—had been at odds with each other over it in recent days as a result. But how could this so-called Lord of some Yueyue Manor possibly know so much? They'd only just met for the very first time—how could he possibly have such intimate knowledge of the Yang family's affairs? This accusation had struck precisely at Yang Chong's most tender spot, and his interrogation of Guo Huilian suddenly rang utterly hollow.

"That was only... only Mother's own idea. Father never... Father never agreed to it." Thoroughly humiliated, Yang Chong scrambled to salvage what little ground he had left, blurting the words out without thinking them through.

Hearing Yang Chong say this, Guo Huilian couldn't help but frown. Seeing this, Tian Xu gently beckoned to her and said softly, "Yaya, don't trouble yourself over this—come stand behind me. I'll handle everything." Guo Huilian was startled for a moment, then, recovering herself, stepped quickly toward Tian Xu, moving to stand directly behind him. Yueying gave her a reassuring look—with the Manor Lord here, she could set her heart entirely at ease. Guo Huilian suddenly felt a deep, steady sense of security wrap itself completely around her.

"You dare call Fourth Sister 'Yaya'? That's her childhood pet name—hardly something any outsider is free to call her as they please! For a man to address her by her childhood name like that—aren't you afraid of what people might say?" It seemed a flash of jealousy had gotten the better of Yang Chong—even he himself had never dared address Guo Huilian by her childhood name so directly, and yet here was this man before him, using it as naturally as breathing.

"Yueyue Manor is Yaya's home—she has an adoptive father, an adoptive elder brother, and a whole host of elder brothers and sisters besides. It's only natural for family to speak with such affection and familiarity—I don't know what business Third Son Yang has taking offense over it. And besides, the affairs of Yueyue Manor are hardly yours to comment upon, are they?"

The crowd around them had already broken into a lively buzz of chatter—today's spectacle was rare entertainment indeed, the unseemly, status-chasing behavior of Yang Nian, the Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, exposed publicly before everyone, all because of his own son's rash outburst. Yang Nian, no doubt, could never have dreamed such a thing possible even in his wildest imaginings.

"After all, it's I who hold the betrothal to Fourth Sister—aren't you the least bit afraid that people will point fingers and brand you both as adulterers, carrying on so intimately in public?" Yang Chong, growing increasingly desperate, spoke with ever less restraint.

"Since Third Son Yang insists on clinging so stubbornly to this matter, why don't we simply have Yueyue Manor send a formal letter of annulment to the Yang household? That way, whenever Lady Yang wishes to arrange a match with some other family in the future, she may do so openly and without any lingering complication." Tian Xu's manner remained easy and unhurried; he turned to Guo Huilian with calm composure. "Yaya, do you regard your adoptive father as your own father?"

Guo Huilian was startled for only a moment before she immediately understood, and answered, picking up on Tian Xu's meaning at once: "Naturally I do. Father is the one who gave Huilian a second life."

"Then let us ask Father to step forward and handle the matter of this annulment, shall we? Not to mention that this was, after all, only ever a verbal betrothal, with no formal betrothal gifts ever exchanged—but even had the full Six Rites been completed, Yueyue Manor would still be able to return every last betrothal gift in full, down to the very last item."